Traffic Safety Starts at Home
It only takes a few extra seconds to play it safe when you back up – and those seconds can make the difference between life and death. While hard to imagine, every year more than 100 children die and thousands more are injured by being backed over, sometimes in their own driveways. Before driving, the National Safety Council urges parents and other drivers to walk completely around their cars to ensure the safety of children and pets. Another danger that’s often not realized is the heat inside a car, which can quickly build up to a life-threatening degree. Even in 70º weather, heat-stroke can happen fast to children or animals left inside a vehicle and can result in injury, brain damage or death. Sometimes heat stroke happens at work, when overworked parents forget to drop children at daycare and leave them in the car. Putting something beside parents in the front seat, like a stuffed animal, when children are in the back, can be a reminder that they are there. The NSC offers free informational flyers, in both English and Spanish, with tips to prevent hot car deaths (English version, Spanish version) and unintentional backovers(English version, Spanish version). Flyers are also available for purchase in quantities of 100 (car deaths, unintentional backovers).
